Location assignment system and method

ABSTRACT

A computer system and set of routines with access to venue maps, merchandizing plans, and store catalogs for a merchant attempts to assign locations to items in the store catalog based on the merchandizing plan and map; when a location cannot be assigned to an item in a venue, a proxy location is determined based on categories associated with the item, a number of merchandising plans across the venues in which the item occurs, and/or clusters of items. An error is also determined in relation to the assigned location. The assigned location and error are output, for example, to guide people to the items.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation-in-part of and claims the benefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/250,094, filed Apr. 10, 2014, which application is incorporated herein in its entirety for all purposes.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to the field of assigning a location to a product in a store.

BACKGROUND

Store operators often have diagrams of stores, as well as information regarding the location of products within the stores. However, the information regarding the location of products within stores is often incomplete or missing.

Store operators and third parties make software services which guide consumers to products in stores; however, these software services are hampered by incomplete or missing product location information.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a simplified product location determination diagram in which a Point Inside Server, one or more Merchant Servers, one or more Wholesale Supplier Servers, and one or more Mobile Devices are connected to a network.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of an exemplary Point Inside Server computing device and some data structures and/or components thereof.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the Point Inside Datastore.

FIG. 4 illustrates a Popularity Index Routine.

FIG. 5A illustrates portions of an Item Location Assignment Routine.

FIG. 5B illustrates portions of an Item Location Assignment Routine.

FIG. 5C illustrates portions of an Item Location Assignment Routine.

FIG. 6 illustrates a CAD drawing of a store.

FIG. 7 illustrates a First Alternative Item Location Assignment Routine.

FIG. 8 illustrates a Second Alternative Item Location Assignment Routine.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

It is intended that the terminology used in the description presented below be interpreted in its broadest reasonable manner, even though it is being used in conjunction with a detailed description of certain examples of the technology. Although certain terms may be emphasized below, any terminology intended to be interpreted in any restricted manner will be overtly and specifically defined as such in this Detailed Description section.

Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout the description and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and the like are to be construed in an inclusive sense, as opposed to an exclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in the sense of “including, but not limited to.” As used herein, the term “connected,” “coupled,” or any variant thereof means any connection or coupling, either direct or indirect between two or more elements; the coupling of connection between the elements can be physical, logical, or a combination thereof. Additionally, the words, “herein,” “above,” “below,” and words of similar import, when used in this application, shall refer to this application as a whole and not to particular portions of this application. When the context permits, words using the singular may also include the plural while words using the plural may also include the singular. The word “or,” in reference to a list of two or more items, covers all of the following interpretations of the word: any of the items in the list, all of the items in the list, and any combination of one or more of the items in the list. References are made herein to routines and subroutines; generally, it should be understood that a routine is a software program executed by computer hardware and that a subroutine is a software program executed within another routine. However, routines discussed herein may be executed within another routine and subroutines may be executed independently (routines may be subroutines and visa versa).

FIG. 1 illustrates a simplified product location determination diagram in which Point Inside Server 200, Point Inside Database 300, one or more Merchant Servers 115, one or more Wholesale Supplier Servers 160, one or more Mobile Devices 105A and 105B, and Point of Sale (“POS”) Computers 180A and 180B in Venues 170A and 170B of Merchant 185A and POS Computer 180C in Venue 170C of Merchant 185C are connected to a Network 150. Venues 170A and 170B may be buildings, such as stores comprising merchandise items for sale, at two distinct geographic locations. POS Computers 180A and 180B may be, for example, a computer in, controlling, or in communication with a cash register or equivalent device in corresponding Venue 170A or 170B. Mobile Devices 105A and 105B may be, for example, mobile phones, smart phones, tablet computers, laptop computers, or the like. Merchant Server 115 and Wholesale Supplier Server 160 may be, for example, computers utilized by merchants and suppliers to merchants. Point Inside Server 200 and Point Inside Database 300 are illustrated and discussed further in relation to FIGS. 2 and 3.

Mobile Devices 105A and 105B, POS Computers 180A and 180B, Merchant Server 115, Wholesale Supplier Server 160, and Point Inside Server 200 are illustrated as connecting to Network 150. Connection to Network 150 or direct connection between computing devices may require that the computers execute software routines which enable, for example, the seven layers of the Open System Interconnection (OSI) model of computer networking or equivalent in a wireless phone or wireless data network. Network 150 comprises computers, network connections among the computers, and software routines to enable communication between the computers over the network connections. Network 150 may comprise, for example, an Ethernet network and/or the Internet. Communication among the various computers and routines may utilize various data transmission standards and protocols such as, for example, the application protocol HTTP. Transmitted data may encode documents, files, and data in various formats such as, for example, HTML, XML, flat files, and JSON.

As described further herein, Popularity Index Routine 400 executed by, for example, Point Inside Server 200, utilizes data from POS Computers 180A and 180B, Merchant Server 115, and/or Wholesale Supplier Server 160 to calculate the number of units of different merchandise items, “Items 305,” sold or obtained at Venues 170A and 170B, which result may be stored in, for example, PopIndex 315 in Point Inside Datastore 300. Item Location Assignment Routine 500 executed by, for example, Point Inside Server 200, obtains an Item Catalog (which may be stored as Item Catalog 310 in Point Inside Datastore 300), which Item Catalog 310 lists Items 305 for sale at Venues 170A and 170B and categories or n-parent categories assigned to Items 305. Item Location Assignment Routine 500 may utilize a Merchandizing Plan, such as, for example, a planogram (hereinafter, “Merchandizing Plan 320”), CAD file information (“CAD 605”) from, for example, Merchant Server 115 and/or Wholesale Supplier Server 160, to attempt to assign locations within Venues 170A and 170B to Items 305 in Item Catalog 310. When Item Location Assignment Routine 500 is not able to assign a location to a first Item 305 based on Merchandizing Plan 320 and CAD 605 for first Venue 170A, Item Location Assignment Routine 500 determines one or more categories associated with first Item 305, such as in Item Catalog 310, determines a popular Item 305 also associated with the categories associated with first Item 305, determines a location of popular Item 305 in first Venue 170A, and assigns the location of the popular Item 305 as the location of the first Item 305, as an Item Proxy Location 325.

Alternatively, if an Item 305 is not present in Merchandizing Plan 320, First Alternative Item Location Assignment Routine 700 may determine an Item Proxy Location 325 by examining instances of Item 305 in Merchandizing Plans 320 at other Venues 170 of Merchant 185A. Alternatively and/or in addition to another method of determining an Item Proxy Location 325, Second Alternative Item Location Assignment Routine 800 may determine an Item Proxy Location 325 by, in part, clustering all Items 305 across all Venues 170 of Merchant 185A in Item Cluster Groups 380 based on a number of matching locations for such Items 305 and, where an Item 305 does not have a location, assigning Item Proxy Location 325 to Item 305 according to locations of other Items 305 in Item Cluster Groups 380.

Item 305 location based on Merchandizing Plan 320 and CAD 605 or Item Proxy Location 325 may then be output, for example to a user of Mobile Device 105, facilitating a user in obtaining Item 305.

This paper may discuss components as connecting to Point Inside Server 200 or to Point Inside Datastore 300; it should be understood that such connections may be to, through, or via the other of the two components (for example, a statement that a computing device connects with or sends data to Point Inside Server 200 should be understood as saying that the computing device may connect with or send data to Point Inside Datastore 300). References herein to “database” should be understood as equivalent to “Datastore.” Merchant Server 115, Wholesale Supplier Server 160, POS Computer 180, and Mobile Device 105 may comprise a datastore. Although illustrated in these Figures as components integrated in one physical unit, the computers, servers and databases may be provided by common (or separate) physical hardware and common (or separate) logic processors and memory components.

Point Inside Server 200 illustrated in FIG. 1 is further illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3 as comprising data groups for routines and data groups used by routines. In addition to the data groups explicitly illustrated, additional data groups may also be present on and/or executed by this device, such as routines for databases, webservers, and web browsers, and routines to enable communication with other computers. The data groups used by routines may be represented by a cell in a column or a value separated from other values in a defined structure in a digital document or file. Though referred to herein as individual records or entries, the records may comprise more than one database entry. The database entries may be, represent, or encode numbers, numerical operators, binary values, logical values, text, string operators, joins, conditional logic, tests, and similar. The browser routines may provide an interface for interacting with other computers through, for example, a webserver routine (which may serve data and information in the form of webpages). The web browsers and webservers are meant to illustrate or refer to user-interface and user-interface enabling routines generally, and may be replaced by equivalent routines for serving and rendering information to and in a user or device interface. Log-in credentials and local instances of user or device profiles may be stored in or be accessible to Mobile Device 105, Point Inside Server 200, Merchant Server 115, and Wholesale Supplier Server 160. Such user or device profiles may be utilized to provide secure communication between the computers.

The software routines and data groups used by the software routines may be stored and/or executed remotely relative to any of the computers through, for example, application virtualization.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of an exemplary Point Inside Server 200 computing device and some data structures and/or components thereof. The computing device 200 comprises at least one Processing Unit 210, Point Inside Server Memory 250, and an optional Display 240, all interconnected along with Network Interface 230 via a Bus 220. Network Interface 230 may be utilized to form connections with Network 150 and to send and receive radio frequency (“RF”) and other wireless and wireline signals.

Point Inside Server Memory 250 generally comprises a random access memory (“RAM”), a read only memory (“ROM”), and a permanent mass storage device, such as a disk drive or SDRAM (synchronous dynamic random-access memory). Point Inside Server Memory 250 stores program code for software routines, such as, for example, Popularity Index Routine 400, Item Location Assignment Routine 500, First Alternative Item Location Assignment Routine 700, Second Alternative Item Location Assignment Routine 800, as well as browser, webserver, email client and server routines, camera, other client applications, and database applications. In addition, Point Inside Server Memory 250 also stores Operating System 255. These software components may be loaded from non-transient Computer Readable Storage Medium 295 into Point Inside Server Memory 250 of the computing device using a drive mechanism (not shown) associated with non-transient Computer Readable Storage Medium 295, such as a floppy disc, tape, DVD/CD-ROM drive, memory card, or other like storage medium. In some embodiments, software components may also or instead be loaded via a mechanism other than a drive mechanism and Computer Readable Storage Medium 295 (e.g., via Network Interface 230).

The computing device 200 may also comprise hardware supported input modalities, Input 245, such as, for example, a touchscreen, a keyboard, a mouse, a trackball, a stylus, a microphone, accelerometer(s), compass(es), RF receivers (to the extent not part of Network Interface 230), and a camera, all in conjunction with corresponding routines.

Point Inside Server 200 may also comprise or communicate via Bus 220 with Point Inside Server Datastore 300, illustrated further in FIG. 3. In various embodiments, Bus 220 may comprise a storage area network (“SAN”), a high speed serial bus, and/or via other suitable communication technology. In some embodiments, Point Inside Server 200 may communicate with Point Inside Server Datastore 300 via Network Interface 230. Point Inside Server 200 may, in some embodiments, include many more components than those shown in this Figure. However, it is not necessary that all of these (or other) generally conventional components be shown in order to disclose an illustrative embodiment.

Point Inside Server 200 is illustrated in FIG. 2 as comprising data groups for routines, such as routines for Popularity Index Routine 400, Item Location Assignment Routine 500, First Alternative Item Location Assignment Routine 700, and Second Alternative Item Location Assignment Routine 800. These routines are discussed at greater length herein. Additional data groups for routines, such as for a webserver and web browser, may also be present on and executed by Point Inside Server 200. Webserver and browser routines may provide an interface for interacting with the other computing devices illustrated in FIG. 1, such as with Merchant Server 115, Wholesale Supplier Server 160, and Mobile Device 105 (all which may serve and respond to data and information in the form of webpages and html documents or files). The browsers and webservers are meant to illustrate user-interface and user-interface enabling routines generally, and may be replaced by equivalent routines for serving and rendering information to and in a user interface in a computing device (whether in a web browser or in, for example, a mobile device application).

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of Point Inside Datastore 300 illustrated in FIG. 2. The components of Point Inside Datastore 300 are data groups used by routines and are discussed further herein in the discussion of other of the Figures. The data groups used by routines illustrated in FIG. 3 may be represented by a cell in a column or a value separated from other values in a defined structure in a digital document or file. Though referred to herein as individual records or entries, the records may comprise more than one database entry. The database entries may be, represent, or encode numbers, numerical operators, binary values, logical values, text, string operators, joins, conditional logic, tests, and similar. In addition to the data groups used by routines illustrated in FIG. 3, log-in credentials and local instances of customer and user profiles may be stored in or be accessible to all of the computing devices illustrated in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 illustrates Popularity Index Routine 400, which may be executed by, for example, Point Inside Server 200. Blocks 401 to 470 may iterate for each Venue 170 of Merchant 185. Information regarding Merchant 185, such as contact information, Venues 335 associated with Merchant 185, and the like, may be stored in Point Inside Datastore 300 as Merchant 330 records.

At block 405, Popularity Index Routine 400 receives point-of-sale data from, for example, POS Computer 180 and/or Merchant Server 115. The point-of-sale data may be stored by Popularity Index Routine 400 as, for example, POS Data 345. POS Data 345 may comprise, for example, a SKU, UPC, a product name, or another unique identifier for an Item 305 as well as a price, tax, discount amounts, a date on which a transaction occurred, and a transaction identifier. At block 405, Popularity Index Routine 400 also receives information regarding Items 305 in a store, such as Venue 170, from, for example, Merchant Server 115 and/or Wholesale Supplier Server 160. The information regarding Items 305 in a store may comprise, for example, a SKU, UPC, a product name, or another unique identifier for a product, whether Item 305 is in inventory, the number of Items 305 in inventory, a category assigned to Item 305, an n-level parent category assigned to Item 305 or to the category of Item 305 (Nike Air; athletic shoe; shoe; apparel; etc.), a department assigned to Item 305, and a store or venue assigned to Item 305. The information regarding Items 305 in a store may be stored in, for example, one or more Item Catalog 310 records.

Item Catalog 310 may comprise columns or equivalent for: item #, name, description, image file, price, category, parent category, selling department, and the like. The categories and/or n-parent categories may be hierarchical, such as, for example, clothing/shoes/running shoes.

Blocks 410 to 420 may iterate for each Item 305 in Item Catalog 310 or for a subset thereof.

At block 415, Popularity Index Routine 400 may match Item 305 in Item Catalog 310 to POS Data 345 according to, for example SKU, UPC, product name or other unique identifier. As used herein, “unique identifier” refers to a SKU, UPC, product name or the like which can uniquely identify an Item 305. Unique identifiers may be found in Item Catalog 310, in Merchandizing Plan 320, in POS Data 345 and in data sets derived from these data sets, such as in Popindex 315, Place-Merchandizing Plan 350, Item-Merchandizing Plan 355, and Item Proxy Location 325 records. Performance of this step may be aided by a table of synonyms, or similar, such as Synonyms 370, which, for example, may equate different unique identifiers as being the same. Synonyms 370 may also be used to equate other identifiers or other data sets, such as, for example, entries in Merchandizing Plan 320 and Map Labels in CAD 605. More than one set of Synonyms 370 may be used in different contexts.

At block 425, Popularity Index Routine 400 may sort the result of block 415 by, for example, date-time and may sort or group according to, for example, category, parent category, department, and store (such as if the POS data is from more than one store). At block 430, Popularity Index Routine 400 may determine the total number of each Item 305 sold (or otherwise obtained at the venue) within a time unit, such as within a 13 month window (which window may be selected to smooth seasonal fluctuations). At block 430, Popularity Index Routine 400 may also determine the average price of Item 305 across the time unit.

Blocks 435 to 460 may be performed for each Item 305 in Item Catalog 310.

At block 440, Popularity Index Routine 400 may determine the log of the number of Items 305 obtained in the time unit, from block 430. At block 445, Popularity Index Routine 400 may determine the log of the average price of Item 305, from block 430. At block 450, Popularity Index Routine 400 may combine the values from block 435 and 440. At block 455, Popularity Index Routine 400 may augment the result of block 450 with the number of searches (or the log of the number of searches) for Item 305 within a relatively short unit of time, such as the last day, so as to account for Items which experience a short-term surge of interest.

At block 465, Popularity Index Routine 400 may save the result of block 450 or 455 as, for example, Popindex 315 entry.

FIGS. 5A-5C illustrate Item Location Assignment Routine 500, which may be executed by, for example, Point Inside Server 200. At block 505, Item Location Routine 500 cross-references a CAD diagram (“CAD”) for a venue, such as Venue 170, which may be stored as CAD 605, and a Merchandizing Plan, which may be stored as Merchandizing Plan 320, to generate Place-Merchandizing Plan 350, corresponding to items in the Merchandizing Plan at locations according to CAD 605 and Merchandizing Plan 320.

CAD 605 may comprise, for example, a dimensioned x- and y-coordinate plan view diagram of a venue. A schematic example of CAD 605 is illustrated in FIG. 6, though it will be appreciated that CAD 605 may describe itself with text or data rather than, as illustrated in FIG. 6, graphics. The x- and y-coordinates 625 may be present in CAD 605, may be obtained or determined, such as from the latitude and longitude of two points, or may be supplied. The x- and y-coordinates may be arbitrarily assigned or may be assigned relative to an external reference, such as another map or such as the global latitude and longitude system. Which coordinate is “x” and which is “y” may be determined according to an absolute reference, such as latitude and longitude, or may be assigned.

Relative to the coordinates in FIG. 6, the venue diagram may be divided in the y-coordinate by aisles, rows and the like, as may be represented by, for example, Y-Coordinate Unit 620 and the numbers 42 and 43, which may be associated with a size of the aisle, row, or the like (such as, for example, 7′-7″). The venue may be divided in the x-coordinate by bay, section, shelving units, and the like, such as for example, X-Coordinate Unit 635. Certain of the divisional units may occupy y- and/or x-coordinate locations, such as a section which may occupy an entire row (a y-coordinate unit) or a portion of a row (an x-coordinate within a y-coordinate unit). CAD 605 may further comprise z-values for layers of shelves, shelf sections, or the like (not shown in 605) and/or such z values may be represented by additional layers in CAD 605. Components of CAD 605 which describe the occupation of space such as rectangular units, such as X-Coordinate Unit 635, areas, points, anchor points (which may indicate the starting point for measuring a distance), dimensions, identification of aisles (such as Y-Coordinate Unit 620), sections or bays (such as X-Coordinate Unit 635) and the like shall be referred to herein as “spatial units.” The spatial units in the diagram may correspond to standard units, such as a 2′ or 4′ lengths, 2′ by 4′ rectangles, and the like or may have non-standard defined dimensions.

CAD 605 may further comprise alpha-numeric text labels associated with the spatial units, referred to herein as “Map Labels.” The Map Labels may recite section or bay names or numbers, aisle or row names or numbers, item category names, codes for items, types, groups or categories of items, dimensions in the CAD, and the like. The Map Labels may be within a unit, such as Map Label 630, or, as with Map Label 615, may be proximate to a unit. The Map Labels may be associated with an anchor point and may indicate a corner of a Spatial Unit. Certain of the units may be non-standard and may be associated with “fallback” locations, areas, or points, such as at element 610, which may be associated with a “fallback” location at the “X” in element 610.

The association between the Map Labels and the spatial units may be according to a file which is part of, accompanies, or is associated with CAD 605, which is created with the creation of CAD 605 or created after the fact, programmatically, and/or with human assistance.

Merchandizing Plan 320 comprises groups of Items in, for example, a table, list, database, structured flat file, or similar. Merchandizing Plan 320 may comprise columns or similar for entries corresponding to a store or venue identifier, such as a name or number, an identifier of a building, floor, or the like, one or more Merchandizing Group IDs (which may be or may, via a code, refer to a categorization or group of Items), item unique identifier(s) such as a SKU, UPC, or product name or number, a barcode or the like, and text or another character string meant to correspond with a spatial unit in a CAD (such as an anchor point, or a section), and/or a value indicating how far along the aisle, row, shelf section, or other spatial unit the item(s) may be found. The Merchandizing Group IDs may be part of a hierarchical system, with n-parent/child Merchandizing Group IDs above/below a given Merchandizing Group ID. The Merchandizing Group IDs may refer to or be meant to correspond to physical locations in venues, such as to spatial units. An Item unique identifier may occur in multiple rows (or equivalent) associating the Item with multiple non-overlapping Merchandizing Group IDs. Two rows from an example of Merchandizing Plan 320 are provided in the following Table:

TABLE 1 (optional) Distance in Merchandizing (optional) (optional) SKU Group (in units Store (optional) Merchandizing Merchandizing (unique from an anchor Number Floor ID Group ID 1 Group ID 2 identifier) point) 4 AADF3A8E- Appliances Section 1 1487835 40 DF75-4CBC- 81EF- 219D7827B83E 4 AADF3A8E- Appliances Section 2 3487653 120 DF75-4CBC- 81EF- 219D7827B83E

During cross-referencing of CAD 605 and Merchandizing Plan 320 at block 505, certain of the entries in Merchandizing Plan 320 may be found to correlate with the Map Labels in CAD 605, such as a Merchandizing Group ID in Merchandizing Plan 320 correlating with a Map Label in CAD 605. Performance of this step may be aided by a table of synonyms, or similar, such as Synonyms 370, which may convert a code into text, a number, or the like (or visa versa).

In certain instances, the correlation (with or without Synonyms 370) may not obtain, such as when a Merchandizing Group ID value in Merchandizing Plan 320 cannot be found in the Map Labels in CAD 605.

The result of block 505 may be saved as Place-Merchandizing Plan 350.

At block 510, Merchandizing Plan 320 and Item Catalog 310 may be cross-referenced to correlate Items 305 in Item Catalog 310 and Items 305 in Merchandizing Plan 320, such as according to Item 305 unique identifier in Item Catalog 310 and in Merchandizing Plan 320. The result of block 510 may be saved as Item-Merchandizing Plan 355, which associates Items 305 and Item 305 unique identifiers in Item Catalog 310 with the locations of groups of Items recited in Merchandizing Plan 320

If not performed at or as a result of block 510, at block 517 a determination may be made regarding whether there are Items 305 in Item Catalog 310 but not in or not identifiable in Merchandizing Plan 320. If such instances occur, First Alternative Item Location Assignment Routine 700 and/or Second Alternative Item Location Assignment Routine 800 may be executed.

Blocks 520 through 596 perform spatial matching on Items 305 with a unique identifier in both Item-Merchandizing Plan 355 and Place-Merchandizing Plan 350, with a subset of these blocks, 575 through 592, performing group matching when certain of the forms of spatial matching do not obtain.

At block 521, for the then-current Item 305, a determination or equivalent may be made regarding whether Item 305 is associated with a section or similar spatial unit in Place-Merchandizing Plan 350. This determination may identify exceptions, such as when Merchandizing Plan 320 identifies that Item 305 is located a distance from a corner of a section or other spatial unit, but CAD 605 identifies that the section or other spatial unit is shorter than the distance from the corner. Other forms of exceptions may occur, which may also result in a negative determination.

If affirmative at block 521, then referring to FIG. 5C, at block 525, the error radius for the section identified at block 521 may be set, such as according to a value determined according to cell C4 or D4 in Table 4, below. The error radius may be used to identify to a user of a service provided by Location Assignment Routine 500 the uncertainty in the location assigned to an Item 305, such as via a radius or perimeter relative to the determined location (or relative to the center of a determined location). The error radius may be a circular radius, a non-circular area, such as a rectangular area within an aisle (as may fit within a circular radius, factoring in the shape of the venue and utilization of spatial units such as aisles), or the like.

At block 530, a determination or equivalent may be made regarding whether Place-Merchandizing Plan 350 identifies a shelf or other z-coordinate for Item 305 or if Place-Merchandizing Plan 350 identifies a distance relative to the spatial unit of block 521 (which distance is allowed by CAD 605). If affirmative, then at block 535 the error radius may be re-determined. At block 540, the determined location and error boundary may be assigned and recorded, such as in an Item Location and Error 375 record.

After block 540, Location Assignment Routine 500 may proceed to block 597, where Item Location and Error 375 record may be output, such as being output to a client device in response to a query for the location of an item in a venue, and then, at block 599, may conclude for Item 305.

If negative at block 521, then at block 570, a determination or equivalent may be made regarding whether Item 305 is associated, via Place-Merchandizing Plan 350, with a “fallback” point. The “fallback” point may be a location identified in Merchandizing Plan 320, CAD 605, and/or another data source which does not conform to standard units—such as sections, bays, or the like—but which may occur between or at the end of such units, such as a basket or stack of items in the middle of an aisle. An example of a fallback point is illustrated in FIG. 6 at element 610. If affirmative at block 570, then referring to FIG. 5C, at block 555, the error radius may be set, such as according to cell C6 or D6 in Table 4, below. At block 560, the determined location and error boundary may be assigned and recorded, such as in an Item Location and Error 375 record. After block 560, Location Assignment Routine 500 may proceed to block 597, where Item Location and Error 375 record may be output, such as being output to a client device in response to a query for the location of an item in a venue, and then, at block 599, may conclude for Item 305.

If negative at block 570, then referring to FIG. 5B, attempts may be made to perform “group” or “category” matching between Item 305 and other Items 305 associated with the same category, parent category, department, or store, which other Items 305 have already had a location assigned, such as Items 305 in Item Location and Error 375 records. Blocks 575 to 592 indicate steps performed to match according to such groupings.

At block 580, Location Assignment Routine 500 may obtain a Category, Parent Category, or n-Parent Category associated with Item 305 in, for example, Item Catalog 310. At this block, one or all of the n-Parent Categories associated with Item 305 may be obtained.

At block 585, Location Assignment Routine 500 may obtain from Popindex 315 the most popular Item(s) 305 therein which is also associated with the Category or Parent Category (including n-Parent Category) associated with Item 305, and which most popular Item 305 has an assigned location, as may be found by looking in, for example, Item Location and Error 375 records.

At block 586, Location Assignment Routine 500 may determine if at least one most popular Item 305 was found at block 585. If not, then the process may proceed to FIG. 5A and block 593. If so, then the process may proceed to block 587. The “at least one most popular Item 305” of block 585 may be the most popular Item 305, it may be two or more Items 305 which have the same popularity, and/or it may be two or more Items 305 which have a popularity in a range, within Popindex 315.

At block 587, Location Assignment Routine 500 may select the most popular Item 305 obtained at block 585 with the lowest matching Category level (wherein the Category system is hierarchical and the more general Categories are “higher” in the Categorical system) or may select the most popular Item 305 obtained at block 585 with the smallest resulting error radius. Alternatively, or in addition, the selection at block 587 may include a factor to preferentially select Items 305 which are more expensive, which have a higher profit margin, which have a promotional status, or based on other criteria as may be supplied by Merchant Server 115.

At block 590, Location Assignment Routine 500 may set the error radius for Item 305 according to, for example, cell D8 or D9 in Table 5, depending, for example, on whether the most popular Item 305 which already has an assigned location was found in a Category, Parent Category, or n-Parent Category. Other error radius may be set for other n-Parent Categories in a like manner.

At block 591, the output of block 585 and 590 may be recorded, such as in an Item Location and Error 375 record. After block 591, Location Assignment Routine 500 may proceed to FIG. 5A and block 597, where Item Location and Error 375 record may be output, such as being output to a client device in response to a query for the location of an item in a venue, and then, at block 599, may conclude for Item 305.

At block 593, if there was no result following blocks 575 to 592, Location Assignment Routine 500 may determine a Department associated with Item 305 in, for example, Item Catalog 310 or Merchandizing Plan 320. If affirmative at block 593, then referring to FIG. 5C, at block 555 Location Assignment Routine 500 may set the error radius, such as according to cell D10 in Table 4, below. At block 560, the determined location and error boundary may be assigned and recorded, such as in an Item Location and Error 375 record. After block 560, Location Assignment Routine 500 may proceed to block 597, where Item Location and Error 375 record may be output, such as being output to a client device in response to a query for the location of an item in a venue, and then, at block 599, may conclude for Item 305.

At block 594, if there was a negative result in block 593, Location Assignment Routine 500 may determine a Store associated with Item 305 in, for example, Item Catalog 310 or Merchandizing Plan 320. Referring to FIG. 5C, at block 555 Location Assignment Routine 500 may set the error radius, such as according to cell D11 in Table 4, below. After block 560, Location Assignment Routine 500 may proceed to block 597, where Item Location and Error 375 record may be output, such as being output to a client device in response to a query for the location of an item in a venue, and then, at block 599, may conclude for Item 305.

Blocks 593 and 594 may be performed regardless of whether a unique identifier is found in both Place-Merchandizing Plan 350 and Item-Merchandizing Plan 355.

At block 595, if there was a negative result in block 594, Location Assignment Routine 500 may record an exception, such as to indicate that no location could be assigned to Item 305.

Tables 2 through 6, following, illustrate spatial data regarding a Venue 170 and group matching information regarding Items 305, as well as the processing of such information to determine error radii (discussed above), specific to Venues 170 of different sizes.

Certain cells in these tables contain an alphanumeric code, such as “A1,” which code may be used in other of the cells as a pointer to such cell. For example, A1 indicates that data must be input. Entries such as “A4=A2*A3,” indicate that the cell is identified as “A4” and that the value of A4 is determined by multiplying A2 by A3.

Table 2 illustrates spatial data regarding a Venue 170 which may be captured or input into or determined by Location Assignment Routine 500 relative to a retailer (or merchant).

TABLE 2 Variables (per retailer) Spatial information (from CAD 605) Average Store size (sq A1 ft): Typical section width A2 (ft): Typical section depth A3 (ft): Average section size (sq A4 = ft): A2 * A3 Average # of sections: A5 Average # of A6 sections/Merchandizing Plan Average # A7 Merchandizing Plans/Department: Total Section Squ. A8 = Footage A5 * A4 Merchandizing SF %: A9 = A8/A1

Table 3 illustrates group matching data which may be captured or input into or determined by Location Assignment Routine 500 relative to a retailer (or merchant).

TABLE 3 Variables (per retailer) continued Group Matching (from Merchandizing Plan 320) Average # A10 SKUs/store: Number of A11 Std Highest Categories/store: Deviation Precision Lowest Precision Average # A12 = B1 C1 = D1 = Items/Category: A10/A11 IF(B1 > A12, Round(A12 + B1, − 1) 0, Round (A12 − B1, − 1) Number of Parent A13 Categories/store: Average # A14 = B2 C2 = D2 = Item/Parent A10/A13 IF(B2 > A14, ROUND(A14 + B2, − 1) Category: 0, ROUND(A14 − B2, 0)) Number of A15 Departments: Average # A16 = B3 C3 = D3 = Items/Department: A10/A15 IF(B3 > A16, ROUND(A16 + B3, − 2) 0, ROUND(A16 − B3, − 2) SKU Density (SKUs A17 = per SF): A10/A1

Table 4 illustrates results of processing data by Location Assignment Routine 500 relative to a retailer (or merchant), to determine the accuracy of an assigned location for spatially matched items.

TABLE 4 Results (per retailer) Accuracy Match Location Accuracy or Error or Error Radius Type Assignment Type Radius (sq ft) (radial ft) Spatial Merchandizing C4 = D4 = Plan-Section A4 SQRT(C4/pi) Match Spatial Merchandizing C5 = D5 = Plan Name Match (C4 * A6) * (1/A9) SQRT(C5/pi) Spatial Fallback Point C6 = D6 = Match 4 * C5 SQRT(C6/pi) Spatial Department C7 = D7 = Name Match C6 * A7 SQRT(C7/pi)

Table 5 illustrates results of processing data by Location Assignment Routine 500 relative to a retailer (or merchant), to determine the accuracy of an assigned location for group matched items.

TABLE 5 Results (per retailer) Location Match Assignment Accuracy or Error Radius Type Type (SKU likelines) Accuracy or Error Radius (radial ft) Group Most C8 = D8 = Popular CONCAT(ROUND(A10 *A18, SQRT(((A10 * C18)/(A17))/pi)) match in 0), “to”, ROUND(A10 * Category C18, 0), “SKUs”) Group Most C9 = D9 = Popular CONCAT(ROUND(A10 * A19, SQRT(((A10 * C19)/(A17))/pi)) match in 0), “to”, ROUND(A10 * Parent C19, 0), “SKUs”) Category Group Most C10 = D10 = popular CONCAT(ROUND(A10 * A20, SQRT(((A10 * C20)/(A17))/pi)) Product in 0), “to”, ROUND(A10 * Department C20, 0), “SKUs”) Group Most C11 = D11 = Popular CONCAT(ROUND((A10) * SQRT(((A10 * C21)/(A17))/pi)) Product in C21, 0), “SKUs”) Store

Table 6 illustrates results of processing data by Location Assignment Routine 500 relative to a retailer (or merchant), with results which are used in Table 5.

TABLE 6 Results (per retailer), continued Accuracy Range (% of total store sq ft) Location Assignment Lowest Type Highest Precision Average Precision Precision Popular match in A18 = B18 C18 = Category B1/A10 D1/A10 Popular Match in A19 = B19 C19 = Parent Category B2/A10 D2/A10 Most popular product A20 = B20 C20 = in department B3/A10 D3/A10 Most popular Product n/a n/a C21 = in store 1.0

FIG. 7 illustrates a First Alternative Item Location Assignment Routine 700, which may be executed by, for example, Point Inside Server 200. First Alternative Item Location Assignment Routine 700 may be executed when, for example, an Item 305 is found in Item Catalog 310 but not in Merchandizing Plan 320 for Venue 335 associated with Merchant 330.

At block 705 a determination may be made regarding whether Item 305 is found in Merchandizing Plan 320 for other Venues 335 associated with Merchant 330. Typically, the Item 305 will be found in multiple different Merchandizing Plans 320 at different Venues 335. The Merchandizing Plans 320 for other Venues 335 associated with Merchant 330 which contain Item 305 may be stored for reference.

If negative at block 705, First Alternative Item Location Assignment Routine 700 may proceed to “D” in FIG. 5A.

If affirmative at block 705, at block 707 a determination may be made regarding whether Item 305 is found in more than one of the Merchandizing Plans 320 of block 705. If negative at block 707, First Alternative Item Location Assignment Routine 700 may proceed to block 730.

If affirmative at block 707, at block 710, a Category and/or Parent Category for Item 305 may be obtained from, for example, Item Catalog 310.

At block 715, the Categories and/or Parent Categories for all Items 305 in the Merchandizing Plans 320 for other Venues 335 associated with Merchant 330 which contain Item 305 of block 705 may be obtained.

At block 720, the Merchandizing Plans 320 of block 705 may be weighted according to the Item Category of Item 305 (of block 710), so as to weight more heavily those Merchandizing Plans 320 of other Venues 335 associated with Merchant 330 which have an Item with a Category (or parent Category) which is the same (or in the same parent-child Category group) as the Item Category of Item 305.

At block 722, optionally the Merchandizing Plan(s) 320 for other Venues 335 associated with Merchant 330 which contain Item 305 may be sorted, such as by a Merchandizing Plan 320 identifier, forming groups of Merchandizing Plans 320 (such as groups of Merchandizing Plan 320 identifiers), and the number in each group of Merchandizing Plan 320 may be counted.

At block 725, the weighted Merchandizing Plans 320 of block 720 may be ranked. Optionally, at block 725, the Merchandizing Plan 320 groups of 722 may be ranked according to which of such Merchandizing Plans 320 have the same Category or Parent Category as Item 305.

At block 730, a determination may be made regarding whether the Merchandizing Plan 320 of block 707 or the top-ranked Merchandizing Plan 320 of block 725 (which Merchandizing Plans have the same Category or Parent Category as Item 305) is found in (or associated with) the present Venue 335.

If affirmative at block 730, then at block 740 Popindex 315 for the present Venue 335 may be obtained and the most popular Item 305 in the Merchandizing Plan 320 of block 725 which also has an assigned location in the present Venue 335 may be obtained, the location thereof obtained, and such location may be assigned as Item Proxy Location 325.

At block 745, the error radius for Item Proxy Location 325 of block 740 may be set as equal to the size of Merchandizing Plan 320 of block 730. At block 750, the determined location and error boundary may be assigned and recorded, such as in an Item Location and Error 375 record.

If negative at block 730, then at block 735 the next highest ranked Merchandizing Plan 320 of block 725 which is also found in (or associated with) the present Venue 335 may be selected. If no next highest ranked Merchandizing Plan 320 of block 725 is found in (or associated with) the present Venue 335, then First Alternative Item Location Assignment Routine 700 may proceed to “D” in FIG. 5A.

Following block 750, First Alternative Item Location Assignment Routine 700 may proceed to “E” in FIG. 5A.

FIG. 8 illustrates a Second Alternative Item Location Assignment Routine 800, which may be executed by, for example, Point Inside Server 300. Blocks 805 to 860 may iterate for each Merchant 330 record, corresponding to, for example, Merchant 185A and Merchant 185B.

At block 810, the location of each Item 305 at all Venues 335 associated with the then-current Merchant 330 may be obtained (keeping in mind that Items 305 may occur in multiple locations within a single Venue 335). The locations may be expressed as a vector, which vector may be expressed as a decimal, for example, 0.123456789, wherein larger geographic units are expressed in units closer to the decimal.

At block 815, clusters of Items 305 at each Venue 335 may be determined. This determination may be performed through a cosine similarity measurement of the decimal-expressed vectors, such as according to a threshold (using the foregoing decimal as an example, an Item with a location vector 0.123456867 may be clustered with another Item with a location vector 0.123456876 because the difference between these two decimals is below a threshold). Item clusters may be saved in, for example, Item Cluster 380 records. Item Cluster 380 may encode the Items 305 in each Item Cluster 380

At block 820, Item Clusters 380 which recur most often across all Venues 335 may be identified.

Blocks 825 to 855 may iterate for each Item 305 which has a missing location record, such as an Item 305 in Item Catalog 310 but which was found not to have a Merchandizing Plan 320 (as may have been determined at block 517 of Item Location Assignment Routine 500).

At block 830, other Items 305 in the most often recurring Item Cluster 380 identified at block 820 and which have a known location in the Venue 335 (which Venue otherwise has a missing location for Item 305) may be identified. At block 835, the other Items 305 identified at block 830 may be ranked by popularity, such as according to Popindex 315.

At block 840, the top ranked other Item 305 of block 835 may be selected and the location of such other Item 305 may be assigned as Item Proxy Location 325 for the then-current Item 305.

At block 845, the error radius may be set based on, for example, the cosine similarity difference between the then-current Item 305 and the other Item 305 (of block 840) across all Venues 335. This determination may further be factored by the incidence of recurrence of the Item Cluster 380 across all Venues 335.

At block 850, the determined Item Proxy Location 325 of block 840 and the error radius of block 845 may be assigned and recorded, such as in an Item Location and Error 375 record.

Block 855 may return to block 825 to iterate over the next Item with a missing location.

Block 860 may return to block 805 to iterate over the next Merchant 330.

A may be determined and ranked, clusters of “close” location vectors may be identified based on cosine similarity of the location vector decimals, such as according to a threshold. Identified clusters may be stored as, for example, Item Cluster Group 380 records. An Item 305 is likely to occur in similar clusters across different Venues 335 for a particular Merchant 185. Items 305 are also likely to be missing from the location records for particular Venues 335 as may be determined, for example, at block 517 of Item Location Assignment Routine 500.

Blocks 820 to 850 iterate for each Item 305 which has a missing location record, such as an Item 305 in Item Catalog 310 but which was found not to have a Merchandizing Plan 320.

At block 825, Item 305 with missing location record may be assigned Item Proxy Location 325

a reference location for each Venue 335 may be assigned or selected (such as an entry way) and the cosine similarity measurement may then be determined for each Item 305 in each Venue 335 relative to the reference location for each Venue 335. At block 815, the Items 305 of block 810 may be clustered into groups based on the number of matching

The above Detailed Description of embodiments is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosure to the precise form disclosed above. While specific embodiments of, and examples are described above for illustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the system, as those skilled in the art will recognize. For example, while processes or blocks are presented in a given order, alternative embodiments may perform routines having operations, or employ systems having blocks, in a different order, and some processes or blocks may be deleted, moved, added, subdivided, combined, and/or modified. While processes or blocks are at times shown as being performed in series, these processes or blocks may instead be performed in parallel, or may be performed at different times. Further, any specific numbers noted herein are only examples; alternative implementations may employ differing values or ranges. 

1. A method of assigning a location to an item in a computer comprising a memory, the method comprising: accessing in the memory a venue map of a first venue associated with a first merchant, which venue map comprises a map spatial unit and an associated map label; wherein, the map spatial unit comprises one or more dimensioned units in a coordinate system in the map and the map label comprises text; accessing in the memory a merchandizing plan, which merchandizing plan comprises a set of merchandizing plan item unique identifiers and a set of merchandizing plan group identifiers and wherein the merchandizing plan associates at least one merchandizing plan item unique identifier and at least one merchandizing plan group identifier; accessing in the memory an item catalog of items in the first venue, which item catalog comprises a set of item catalog unique identifiers and a set of item catalog categories; wherein, when the item catalog comprises an item catalog unique identifier for a first item which does not have a corresponding entry in the merchandizing plan, determining an item proxy location for the first item.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining an item proxy location for the first item further comprises: determining that the first item is in each of a first set of merchandizing plans for a set of venues other than the first venue, obtaining the item catalog category of the first item; obtaining the item catalog categories of all of the items in the first set of merchandizing plans for the set of venues other than the first venue; weighting the merchandizing plans in the first set of merchandizing plans according to the number of times the item catalog category of the first item occurs in the item catalog categories of all of the items in the first set of merchandizing plans; ranking the weighted merchandizing plans in first set of merchandizing plans; selecting a top ranked merchandizing plan in the first set of ranked weighted merchandizing plans, which top ranked merchandizing plan is present at the first venue; selecting an item from the top ranked merchandizing plan; and assigning the location of the selected item as the item proxy location.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein selecting an item from the top ranked merchandizing plan comprises accessing a popularity index of items available at the first venue, identifying the most popular of the other items in the merchandizing plan and selecting the location of such most popular item as the item proxy location.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the popularity index comprises a set of popularity index item unique identifiers, a set of date-time records recording when items in the set of popularity index item unique identifiers were obtained at the venue.
 5. The method of claim 2, further comprising assigning a first location error to the assigned first proxy location.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein assigning a first location error to the assigned first proxy location comprises determining the size of the selected merchandizing plan and assigning the size of the selected merchandizing plan as the size of the first location error.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining an item proxy location for the first item further comprises: determining that the first item is not in a merchandizing plan for a set of venues other than the first venue and assigning the item proxy location based on at least one of a department and a store associated with the first item.
 8. The method of claim 7, further comprising assigning a first location error to the assigned proxy location.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein assigning a first location error to the assigned proxy location comprises determining the size of the selected merchandizing plan and assigning the size of the selected merchandizing plan as the size of the first location error.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein determining an item proxy location for the first item further comprises: obtaining the location of all items across all venues associated with the first merchant; identifying clusters of items in each of the venues; identifying clusters of items which recur most often across the venues; for a cluster of items comprising the first item which recurs most frequently across the venues, selecting a second item in the set of items in the cluster comprising the first item, which second item is in a merchandizing plan associated with the first venue; and assigning the location of the second item as the item proxy location.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein identifying clusters of items in each of the venues comprises storing each location in the set of all items as a vector and performing cosine similarity measurement with a threshold, which threshold defines whether items are in a cluster of items.
 12. The method of claim 10, wherein selecting the second item in the set of items in the cluster comprising the first item comprises accessing a popularity index of items available at the first venue, identifying the most popular of the items in the cluster comprising the first item, which identified most popular item is in a merchandizing plan associated with the first venue, and selecting such identified most popular item as the second item.
 13. The method of claim 10, further comprising assigning a first location error to the assigned item proxy location.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein assigning the first location error to the assigned proxy location further comprises determining a difference between the item locations of the first and second items and assigning the first location error to the assigned proxy location based on such difference.
 15. A computing apparatus for assigning a location to an item, the apparatus comprising a processor and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, configure the apparatus to: access in the memory a venue map of a first venue associated with a first merchant, which venue map comprises a map spatial unit and an associated map label; wherein, the map spatial unit comprises one or more dimensioned units in a coordinate system in the map and the map label comprises text; access in the memory a merchandizing plan, which merchandizing plan comprises a set of merchandizing plan item unique identifiers and a set of merchandizing plan group identifiers and wherein the merchandizing plan associates at least one merchandizing plan item unique identifier and at least one merchandizing plan group identifier; access in the memory an item catalog of items in the first venue, which item catalog comprises a set of item catalog unique identifiers and a set of item catalog categories; wherein, when the item catalog comprises an item catalog unique identifier for a first item which does not have a corresponding entry in the merchandizing plan, determine an item proxy location for the first item.
 16. The computing apparatus of claim 15, wherein the instructions further configure the apparatus to: determine that the first item is in each of a first set of merchandizing plans for a set of venues other than the first venue, obtain the item catalog category of the first item; obtain the item catalog categories of all of the items in the first set of merchandizing plans for the set of venues other than the first venue; weight the merchandizing plans in the first set of merchandizing plans according to the number of times the item catalog category of the first item occurs in the item catalog categories of all of the items in the first set of merchandizing plans; rank the weighted merchandizing plans in first set of merchandizing plans; select a top ranked merchandizing plan in the first set of ranked weighted merchandizing plans, which top ranked merchandizing plan is present at the first venue; select an item from the top ranked merchandizing plan; and assign the location of the selected item as the item proxy location.
 17. The computing apparatus of claim 15, wherein the instructions further configure the apparatus to: obtain the location of all items across all venues associated with the first merchant; identify clusters of items in each of the venues; identify clusters of items which recur most often across the venues; for a cluster of items comprising the first item which recurs most frequently across the venues, select a second item in the set of items in the cluster comprising the first item, which second item is in a merchandizing plan associated with the first venue; and assign the location of the second item as the item proxy location.
 18. A non-transient computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a processor, configure the processor to: access in the memory a venue map of a first venue associated with a first merchant, which venue map comprises a map spatial unit and an associated map label; wherein, the map spatial unit comprises one or more dimensioned units in a coordinate system in the map and the map label comprises text; access in the memory a merchandizing plan, which merchandizing plan comprises a set of merchandizing plan item unique identifiers and a set of merchandizing plan group identifiers and wherein the merchandizing plan associates at least one merchandizing plan item unique identifier and at least one merchandizing plan group identifier; access in the memory an item catalog of items in the first venue, which item catalog comprises a set of item catalog unique identifiers and a set of item catalog categories; wherein, when the item catalog comprises an item catalog unique identifier for a first item which does not have a corresponding entry in the merchandizing plan, determine an item proxy location for the first item.
 19. The non-transient computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the instructions further configure the processor to: determine that the first item is in each of a first set of merchandizing plans for a set of venues other than the first venue, obtain the item catalog category of the first item; obtain the item catalog categories of all of the items in the first set of merchandizing plans for the set of venues other than the first venue; weight the merchandizing plans in the first set of merchandizing plans according to the number of times the item catalog category of the first item occurs in the item catalog categories of all of the items in the first set of merchandizing plans; rank the weighted merchandizing plans in first set of merchandizing plans; select a top ranked merchandizing plan in the first set of ranked weighted merchandizing plans, which top ranked merchandizing plan is present at the first venue; select an item from the top ranked merchandizing plan; and assign the location of the selected item as the item proxy location.
 20. The non-transient computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the instructions further configure the processor to: obtain the location of all items across all venues associated with the first merchant; identify clusters of items in each of the venues; identify clusters of items which recur most often across the venues; for a cluster of items comprising the first item which recurs most frequently across the venues, select a second item in the set of items in the cluster comprising the first item, which second item is in a merchandizing plan associated with the first venue; and assign the location of the second item as the item proxy location. 